Susan Watkins on Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Strange Death of Tory England. Roles of déclassement, decolonization and Thatcherite revolution in the Conservative decline.

SUSAN WATKINS

TORYISM AFTER BLAIR

If conservatism is staked on appeals to order or tradition, its political history has generally been one of schism, revolutionary rupture or military defeat. Few conservative parties on the European continent or in East Asia have a continuous organizational existence going back more than seventy years. Those in the Western hemisphere are little older; it was not until well into the 20th century that the gop emerged as a force to the right of the Democrats. Across Latin America military juntas have regularly made up for conservatism’s lack of popular support, with Colombia’s Partido Conservador the notable exception.